Regular-guy memoirist Casey (Tales from the Granite Orchard, 2011) presents readers with the stories of his life and times.
In a series of only vaguely chronological and largely self-contained chapters, Casey offers readers his versions of the funny stories and personal folklore that accumulate over the years in most families. Here are his most cherished memories of growing up in typical American suburbia; here is a doomed attempt to learn the fine art of public speaking; here are his strongest impressions of his distant, problematic father; here are his most embarrassing anecdotes about his children and funny stories revolving around his first wife (comments about his second, current wife are rarer and almost entirely reverential). He recounts being made manager of a New York funeral parlor, sweet-to-recall high school days in the 1950s, a persistent penchant for golf in inclement weather and a tense-but-amusing encounter with a tiger shark off Hilton Head. All of these stories have obviously been told many times—they likely came to Casey’s co-writer Mathewson with much of their polish and all of their punch lines already in place. Some skirt sadness, but the vast majority aren’t even bittersweet—this is a warm, happy book (the cover features a simple infusion of sunlight) presided over by Casey’s upbeat, sarcastic, utterly likable persona. “Sometimes I get a little help in the gentle art of creative failure,” Casey writes at one point, but although that tone of approachable self-mockery is present throughout, almost none of this material fails. Children are born, grow up and make their father proud (each one of them gets a separate dedication), and Casey wisecracks and horses around throughout it all, with only occasional stabs at weightier matters (almost always evoked by his parents). A funny, page-turning collection of family highlights, recounted by a genial showman.
Pub Date: Aug. 31, 2011
ISBN: 978-0980141214
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Haddon Road
Review Posted Online: Oct. 24, 2011
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
This is not the Nutcracker sweet, as passed on by Tchaikovsky and Marius Petipa. No, this is the original Hoffmann tale of 1816, in which the froth of Christmas revelry occasionally parts to let the dark underside of childhood fantasies and fears peek through. The boundaries between dream and reality fade, just as Godfather Drosselmeier, the Nutcracker's creator, is seen as alternately sinister and jolly. And Italian artist Roberto Innocenti gives an errily realistic air to Marie's dreams, in richly detailed illustrations touched by a mysterious light. A beautiful version of this classic tale, which will captivate adults and children alike. (Nutcracker; $35.00; Oct. 28, 1996; 136 pp.; 0-15-100227-4)
Pub Date: Oct. 28, 1996
ISBN: 0-15-100227-4
Page Count: 136
Publisher: Harcourt
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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